Learning how to create a bootable macOS installation disk can be helpful in a variety of situations. Rather than download and install a new OS from Apple's servers each time, it can be used for multiple installations on different machines. It can also help in situations where the operating system is corrupted or installation from app store shows errors.
To create a bootable macOS installation disk, you have to burn the DMG file to a USB drive as CD/DVD is not available for Mac computers. Here's how to do it from text commands and using a purpose-built software called WizDMG. You will first need to download the DMG file for the macOS version you wish to install. For example, if you want to create a bootable macOS Mojave installer, you will need the DMG file for macOS Mojave. Once the file has been downloaded to your PC, you can proceed with one of the bootable disk creation methods shown below.
Method 1: How to Create Bootable USB Installer for Mac via Commands
Dec 10, 2018 Step 3 Create Bootable USB from macOS Install Image Click 'Load DMG' to import your DMG file into the program. Insert a blank DVD and click Burn against the DVD option to write the DMG. Oct 24, 2011 Convert OS X Lion DMG Installer to a Bootable USB Thumb Drive. On your Mac, open up Disk Utility. Click on the USB Drive on the left. On the right pane, go to the Restore tab. Click on the Browse button and locate the.dmg installer for OS X Lion. (ie macosx10711a390.dmg) 4. Jul 31, 2011 The steps above can also be used to create a bootable Mac OS X Lion USB by using the InstallESD.dmg image you can find inside the Lion installer (named “Install Mac.
macOS (formly named Mac OS X) is just a variant of popular Unix based operating system. This means a lot of daily and advanced tasks on Mac can be done via text commands such as creating bootable USB installer for Mac. However, this could be a lot of challenges if you had no clue about commands and I suggest taking a look at the other solutions in this post to avoid messing up the computer with the wrong commands.
Step 1. Search macOS name in app store (Mojave, High Serria, EI Capitai). Click 'Get' button to download the installer image on your Mac. The downloaded file will be located in Application folder.
Step 2. When the download is completed, the installation windows opens automatically, just close the window and go to Application folder. You will find a file started Install, such as Install macOS Majave.
Step 3. Now connect an external flash drive with more than 16G free space. And backup the data in that USB drive as the installer erase all content from it. Open Disk Utility app and format the USB drive with APFS or Mac OS Extended.
Step 4. Open the Terminal app and copy-and-past the following commands to make a booatble USB installer from macOS image:
For Majove: sudo /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
For High Serria: sudo /Applications/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume
For EI Capitan: sudo /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app
Step 5. Input the admin password when being prompted. And wait for the booatable disk being created. When it is done successfully, you will receive a message shown in above screenshot.
Unconfortable with text commadns and prefer doing it in a simple way? The second suggestion is more user friendly!
Method 2: How to Make Bootable USB from macOS with WizDMG
WizDMG fills a huge gap in Windows not supporting DMG files. It is a desktop utility supporting Windows and Mac. It allows you to directly burn DMG files to disk in order to create a bootable macOS Mojave installer or a boot disk for any macOS version.
WizDMG offers an intuitive interface with no clutter and full functionality to handle DMG files. Apart from burning such disk image files to DVD/CD or USB, it also gives you edit options where you can add and remove files from within the DMG file, rename DMG files and even create DMGs from files and folders on your desktop. This software application has been created for novice users as well as experts. It is easy to use, has a very high burn success rate and will help you create a bootable macOS installer in no time. Follow the instructions below:
Step 1Install WizDMG
Download WizDMG from the official website and install it on your PC. Launch the program and select the 'Burn' option in the main interface.
Step 2Create Bootable USB from macOS Install Image
Click on Load DMG to import the macOS installation file into the application. Insert a USB (16G free space) and click on the 'Burn' button next to the appropriate media type.
The important thing to remember here is that you now know how to create a macOS installer in Windows. There aren't a lot of options out there because of the compatibility issues between Mac and Windows environments. That means converting DMG to ISO and back again to DMG leaves the door open for corrupted files and incorrectly burned bootable media, which defeats the whole purpose because it might not even work in the end.
Method 3: Create macOS High Serria/Mojave Bootable USB on Windows 10/7
Another way to create macoS bootable disk on Windows is using a tool called DMG2IMG along with Windows command prompt. It requires a bit of a workaround, but even novice users can learn to burn a DMG file to a disk to create bootable media for a macOS installation. Just make sure you follow the instructions below carefully.
Step 1. Download DMG2IMG and install it in your Windows PC. Open File Explorer and go to the folder containing the DMG2IMG program, then right-click and select 'Open command windows here.'
Step 2. Type the following command and hit Enter: dmg2img [sourcefile.dmg] [destinationfile.iso]
Step 3. Now that the DMG file has been converted to ISO format, you can use the following command to burn it to a disk. Before that, insert a disk into the optical drive: isoburn.exe /Q E: 'C:UsersUsernameDesktopdestinationfile.iso'
Step 4. This command utilizes the Windows native disk image burner to burn the ISO to the disk in your optical drive. The ISO file can't be used directly in macOS, but it can be mounted as a virtual drive. Once you do this, you can convert it back to DMG using Disk Utility in Mac. You can then use this as your bootable macOS installer.
As you can see, this is a bit of a workaround because DMG files aren't natively supported in Windows. Likewise, ISO files aren't fully supported in macOS. However, you can use this method to create a macOS installation disk in Windows. If you want a much simpler solution, then review the next method shown here.
Summary
If you ask us how to create a bootable macOS installation disk, this is the method we recommend. There's no confusing command line work involved, you don't need a bunch of additional software utilities to get the job done, and the high accuracy of the application ensures that you won't be wasting disk after disk trying to burn the installation media for macOS onto a disk. Use WizDMG as a quick and painless way to create a macOS installation disk in a very short time.
Related Articles & Tips
A DMG disk image file is Apple's container format for capturing entire drives or disks, similar to ISO for other platforms like Windows. It consists of data blocks that represent a physical disc. If you're on a Windows machine, you're limited in what you can do with DMG files. That's why you need third-party utilities to create a bootable DVD from DMG on Windows. This article explains two different methods to burn DMG files to amake bootable macOS installation DVD in Windows.
Method 1: How to Create Bootable DVD from DMG (Command Prompt)
This approach utilizes a tool called DMG2IMG, which converts DMG file into ISO, the universally more compatible archive format. This ISO file is then burned using a command line execution in Command Prompt. You don't really need any experience with disk images or command line work, but it will certainly help should something go wrong. If you're not comfortable with any of this, you can skip to Method 2, which showcases a powerful but user-friendly tool that does it all for you. But first, let's see how the Command Prompt method of creating a bootable DVD from DMG works.
Note: The older version of DMG2IMG is called DMG2ISO. Although the download is available in the link provided in Step 1 below, it is recommended that you use DMG2IMG instead. The utility has the ability to convert DMG into both ISO and IMG, based on your needs.
Step 1. Install DMG2IMG on a Windows PC after downloading the zipped win32 binary from this website. Unzip the file and run the .exe to install the program. You can also download DMG2ISO, but DMG2IMG is the recommended software to use.
Step 2. Open Command Prompt on your PC and execute the following command to convert your DMG into ISO. Be sure to change the file names as appropriate, and include the whole file path from the main directory:
dmg2img.exe c:downloadsexample.dmg c:downloadsexampleconverted.iso
Step 3. Now that your ISO file is ready, you can use the Windows ISO burning utility or a free application like FreeISOBurner to create a bootable DVD.
This DVD can be used to install macOS in virtual Windows environments with tools like Virtualbox. You can't use ISO files to install software in Mac, so if this is intended for a computer running Mac OS X or macOS, you will need to convert it back to DMG before you can install the program in question. If you're not confident that you can carry out the steps properly, then continue to Method 2.
Making A Bootable Osx Usb From Dmg On Windows
Method 2: How to Make a Bootable DVD for Mac on Windows (DMGGeeker)
Conversion processes aren't always accurate and success rate is low for the first method. Many DVD are not able to be used to install macOS due to boot errors. Although DMG2IMG is a great tool, you may find that your resulting ISO file is corrupted and therefore useless. That means doing it all over again. Instead, you can try using DMGGeeker, which allows you to directly burn DMG to a DVD in Windows without having to convert the file. Such a disk can be used to boot a Mac computer.
DMGGeeker is an emerging star in the world of disk image file management software. It allows you to edit, add files to, delete content from, rename and do a lot more with DMG files on Windows without any conversion necessary. If you've been searching for the ideal DMG handling tool for Windows, your search has just ended. Let's see how the process works for creating a bootable media from DMG in Windows. It works with all recent versions of Windows.
Step 1Prepare for Installation
You can download it from the official site here. And then install DMGGeeker on a Windows PC.
Step 2Open DMGGeeker in Windows
Launch the application and click on the 'Burn' option. You'll see the other tools available for DMG files.
Dmg To Bootable Iso
Step 3Create Bootable USB from macOS Install Image
Click 'Load DMG' to import your DMG file into the program. Insert a blank DVD and click Burn against the DVD option to write the DMG to the disk.
In three simple steps, your bootable DVD is ready. You won't find that many tools that are so easy to operate. DMGGeeker also has one of the highest burn success rates in its class, which means no wasted DVDs and no wasted time.
Summary
How to choose the rignt tool depends on what the purpose is. If you want to use a DMG file in Windows to mount a version of Mac OS X, then Method 1 will work. However, most of the time, you'll need a DMG to install an OS version on a Mac computer. In those cases, if all you have to work with is a Windows PC, DMGGeeker is the perfect application. It's simple enough for a novice yet robust enough for a professional, it contains all the tools you need to manage DMG files, and it's a life-saver if you only have a Windows PC to work with.